“Free Booklet– Farming with Dynamite, No. 32”

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Monday, July 24, 1911: If I could go elsewhere sometime, I might be able to write something in this diary that would be interesting, and not have every entry fill of stale doings. I’ve expressed my feelings fully for tonight, so good-night.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Sometimes I’m amazed at how much times have changed in the last one hundred years. Since Grandma didn’t write much today, I’ll show you an advertisement for dynamite that I found in the August 1911 issue of Farm Journal.

The text in the paragraph says:

To learn how progressive farmers are using dynamite for removing stumps and boulders, planting and cultivating fruit trees, regenerating barren soil, ditching, draining, excavating and road-making, write now for Free Booklet–“Farming With Dynamite, No. 32.”

I guess that in some sections of the US, virgin forests were still being cleared and people were blasting out the stumps. Farmers may have also wanted to remove fencerows that contained trees to enlarge fields. Amazingly farmers apparently could just walk into a store and buy dynamite back then. Whew, it’s scary to think about all of the environmental and safety issues.